Side by Side
by TheDayYouSaidGoodnight
Summary: Seeking refuge in a paradise in the midst of the twisted, dystopian world of Aku's evil, Jack finds a man and his student, a bane to her village because she was cursed. Hearing their story, Jack knows that there is something different about them.


Hi...this has been my first fanfic in ages! So again, I write...and a Samurai Jack fic at that. Thank you for reading my first SJ story. I hope you will enjoy it. If it is to your liking to leave a comment on this humble piece of work, I am your debtor.

DISCLAIMER ROLL: [THIS APPLIES FOR ALL CHAPTERS]

Samurai Jack belongs to Genndy Tartakovsky. If I can ever meet this guy, I will thank him so much for creating this epic animation.

I also don't own the songs "Your Guardian Angel" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and "Walk Away" by Slapshock, a band here in the Philippines. These will be used in later chapters.

DEDICATION:

This fic is dedicated to one of my former mentor, from whom I have learned so much, not just about the subject he taught, but also the wisdom he imparted. For me, he is one of the kindest people in the world and may good luck follow him in his career as a teacher.

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**Chapter 1: The Samurai, The Mentor and The Student**

Calloused feet in wooden sandals brushed through the green grass which swayed in time with the wind. The breeze was blowing towards the North and the blades of grass pointed to a dense forest ahead.

He removed his plaited straw hat to let the cool air brush through his dark locks tied in a clean topknot yet wore it again after a while. Dressed in a white gi which was stained with oil, burned by an explosion and streaked by small drops of blood, he needed to find a retreat from all the fighting he had done that day.

This traveler's eyes widened upon seeing this multitude of vegetation ahead of him. It was a change from the dirty streets of the cities, wherein he could only see the image of his archenemy, the current Ruler of the World.

He walked on, taking slow, relaxed steps upon entering the forest, which he sensed to have no evil presence within. It was rare to find such a paradise during his travels. The cool wind caressed his battered face while the languid sunlight entered through the gaps in between the ancient trees which stood so proud and tall.

As he walked, he spotted some wildflowers of every color imaginable growing from the ground. Playful white rabbits chased each other around the trees while squirrels stored up on acorns. The soft, melodic chirping of birds echoed throughout the forest. _A little too perfect. Even in the most serene of places, evil may lurk._ The warrior thought, holding on the hilt of his mystical sword.

His walking led him to a clearing, actually a lake which was the heart of the forest. This glimmering body of water was surrounded by willows and cypresses, and large stones on its four corners, as well as paths to caves.

His journey and the fight that he had went through proved exhausting. He took off his hat and knelt by the lake and scooped some of the clean water to first wash his hands, then washed his face, marked by soot and blood. He washed his sword as well, making it look as divine as it was first given to him. He then drank another handful of water to quench his thirst. He sighed, before standing up and wearing his hat to continue his travels.

When he stood up and turned around, he was startled to see another person behind him. He was wondering whether this person was a young man or a young woman, for the face was more of a girl's than a boy's, yet too boyish to be that of a girl.

Shiny, jet-black hair was tied into a neat ponytail, yet with a lot of stray strands at the left side of the head which formed what seemed to be a curtain which curled to conform to the round shape of the young one's face. Skin was brown, from the ears dangled silver earrings which looked like daggers. The nose was not flat, yet not too aquiline, and the lips were pouting. This attacker had a lithe body yet s/he wore baggy camouflage pants, heavy combat boots, and a mismatching top which seemed to be a gi torn off at mid-thigh, with the sleeves rolled.

"If your intentions are cruel, leave now, samurai. We do not have room for suspicious people in this forest." the voice confirmed that the person was female. The expression in her long-lashed, heavy-lidded brown eyes did not leave room for argument. The person before her did not budge. "Very well, then." she said, taking on a fighting stance.

"I do not wish to fight you." he said, not even lifting his gaze. "But I do." she said, disappearing from his line of sight. _What in the world..._ he thought. The leaves around him rustled, and he knew that somewhere in those trees, she was hiding. He closed his eyes as he felt a rush of wind behind him.

She came from behind, about to stab him in the back with a sharp dagger. He turned around in an instant, dropping the hat off his head, in order to dodge her but while she was in mid-flight and while he was in the process of pushing her away, a voice suddenly sounded in the distance.

"Stop." a stoic yet gentle voice sounded. Both warriors looked at the sound of the voice. There stood a tall, thin man with fair skin, which seemed to glow pinkish in the light. His deep, brown eyes gave away an idea that he was gentle and trusting. He had an aquiline nose and thin, pink lips. His black hair was cut as if he was a soldier. He wore a short leather jacket, a graphic black shirt with distorted white illustrations and dark jeans ending in faded, dirty sneakers.

The girl rushed to the man and bowed in front of him. "I am sorry, sir. I thought this man is a bane to us and all travelers." "Forgiven..." he held her by the shoulder and she stood straight beside him. "Stranger, forgive my student. She is young and sometimes too daring for her own good." he said, bowing respectfully, as his student bowed as well. "If it is your will sir, stay with us. It would be a good reprieve for my brash actions." she said.

"An apology isn't needed, sir. I believe I have entered a place that I shouldn't tread yet I thank you for your hospitality." he said, bowing to the mentor and his student. "They call me Jack." "I am Daichi." "And I am Lior, his student." "Let me lead you to our temporary home in this forest, where we can talk well and rest." Daichi said, walking on until they reached an outcrop of rock to the north.

They entered a shallow, damp cave well-hidden from animal and robot predators alike. Daichi bade them sit down around a wide, smooth rock which resembled a low table. "Tell me about yourself, fellow warrior, besides the fact that you have wanted posters around town with two googolplex reward." Daichi said as he chuckled silently, Lior sneered and Jack smiled.

"I am on a quest to go back to the past. Aku has sent me here in this distant time when I was about to give the final blow and to return, I must defeat him." Jack said, quite stoic. "I and my teacher have suffered as well because of Aku." Lior said. Her formerly defensive eyes were now showing trust and sadness.

"I was sent away by my village, which was starving and living in poverty. I was born into an affluent family but by advice of the elders of our village, I was to be sent away when I was 12. If we did not obey, our village would die...yet my parents did not send me away from our home when I reached the age. Famine came over our village and the crops were destroyed by locusts. Every time I exited my house, it would rain blood. So, they then decided to send me away with only a few possessions...never accepted, never loved." Lior told the sad story of her life.

_The village had once been a splendid metropolis, with sprawling buildings and apartment blocks lining the main avenue. It was one of the wealthiest even in the poverty that this bleak future had brought but now, it had become nothing more than a wasteland, and in the middle of that wasteland was a girl, 12 years old, kneeling and weeping in the chaos._

_An old man came out of the shadows, his limbs marked by numerous cuts which oozed fresh blood and numbing pain._

"_You..." he pointed a bony finger at the helpless girl. "YOU MONSTER...bathed in the blood of the village...you had taken your first step here...and you brought our ruin! His minions stormed us!" "I am not a monster!" she yelled and as she did, the brown iris of her eyes became a burning scarlet, and her brown skin became pale as death. _

_Black liquid suddenly flowed from parts of the city and she was enveloped in it. It turned into a robe which was originally white, yet now stained with the crimson blood of the people whom she had killed._

"_Who are you?" the old man asked, cowering in fear. "The cause of your death." said a raspy voice from the woman before him. She brought out two obsidian daggers glowing in orange flames. She moved her hands in a way which was inhumanly fast, cutting the old man into fifty pieces, with the blood spurting like a fountain. The heart came out in one piece...and she pierced right through it._

_She gave off a melodious yet evil laugh that echoed around the desolate village but her laughing stopped soon. She suddenly dropped down to the ground, screaming in pain. The monstrous creature exploded into a thousand shattered pieces, dust swirling afterwards._

_Out of the fragments came the girl, her eyes brown and her skin brown again. Her gaze came to the decimated old man. The fresh blood of this old man stained her wounded hands._

"_I did this?" she asked, still sitting on her heels. "Yes...you did..." a shadow with upward pointing spikes on the top from the backalley said. The jet-black shadow suddenly morphed into its true form: Aku._

_She looked at the demon in front of her, with a piercing gaze which did not seem to affect the source of all evil. "No...it was YOU...who killed him...and cursed me when I was born." she said, pointing a finger at him. "Smart one, aren't you...Agrona?" he asked, using her true name._

"_I abandoned my name when I left my village. I go by no name, for anyone who knows who I am is sure to kill me. That name meant battle, slaughter...and now the name is dead." she said, disdaining the way he called her._

"_You can't hide forever...you know who I am...and you know what I can do. I am the overlord of the Universe! Join me and you shall be powerful as well. You know, you are the luckiest among those whom I have toyed around with." Aku told her, laughing at the last word._

"_AND MAY I ASK WHY?" she said, spitting out venom in every word. "**Because I have not left my mark on you...**" she examined her limbs. He was right. She was not marked yet. "...and now, I give you the option...if you let me mark you, you shall live without suffering...if you don't...you shall be disdained by all people in the world...and you are subject to the tortures they put on you." but Aku himself knew what her answer would be._

"_**I'd rather die a thousand times over than submit to you. I don't care if the whole world will hate me. I know how it feels like. Pain will be nothing**." she said, fists clenched and tears streaming down her cheeks._

"_Very well then...here comes the first of the pain...stubborn one." Aku left suddenly and a bolt of fire surged down from the skies. She just looked at the sky, unable to move. "I subjected myself to...THIS!" at that word, the bolt hit her back, burning her and numbing her spine. Her tears fell quickly, coupled with a howl of pain that would have been heard in the next village._

"And from village to village I went, only to feel the pain that Aku would inflict...if not the beating of my own kind...until I reached another town. Sir...tell the rest." Lior said. Jack understood how painful it was.

Daichi exhaled quietly before saying a word. "I lived in the town which she speaks of. I was an instructor of tae kwon do, and karate. After one of my classes, I saw a great commotion at the town gate. I saw her, pleading that she may be given entry, yet the whole town did not want her, since they have heard of what happened to the other small villages."

"How did she become your student, when nobody let her in?" Jack asked, eyes wide, quite intrigued. "I told them to let her in but they told me that she was a monster, filthy with the blood of those she had slaughtered. I still pulled her into the town and let her live in my house. I tried to let her join martial arts classes with the others, but the students were afraid of her...so I had to teach her alone...and she became one of those in the highest level after one and a half year."

_"You don't care that they hate you? You don't care that I've seen the overlord of darkness with my own eyes? You don't care that I've killed an old man and decimated him into pieces? You don't care that I've been the cause of death of many villages? You don't care that the pain I will undergo would affect you?" she asked, now clean of all the blood and gore that had stained her. She was dressed in clean clothes that her apparent savior had given her. _

"_No, I don't. Not even any of those. **Even if people hate you, you must do what is right...and your behavior does not define you, you are separate from it...mistakes are done, but they can be undone...and pain will be healed. Do you understand?**" Daichi said, his calm voice influencing her. "Yes, sir."_

"_I am Daichi. Do you have a name?" Daichi asked her, the words almost out of nowhere, sitting beside her on the white futon. "I abandoned it. I wish to have a new life...and start it with a new name." she said, her expression grim, remembering when Aku had said her name. It felt like venom to her. "What should I name you?" Daichi asked._

_Sunlight streamed into the room because of the half-closed blinds. The room felt light and languid. Daichi took one look at the girl in front of him, and saw the sunlight behind her head, which seemed to be beacons of radiance that she emitted._

"_I know...I name you...Lior." Daichi said, with a charming smile. "What does that mean?" "**My light...**" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You barely know me...but I am your light?" "Yes...you have risen from the pain that darkness inflicted upon you. You broke through the curse at the expense of your comfort...and I know that one day, you will be a ray of hope to the world."_

"_You're too optimistic, sir...but the name's too beautiful to reject. From now on...I am no longer a slave to my curse. From now on...my name is...Lior..." she said, bowing before her master._

_In one and a half year, Lior had mastered the arts that her mentor had taught her, though she always learned one-on-one with her teacher because people were afraid of her._

"_CHA!" she shouted sharply, delivering a painful 45-kick which could have sent her master flying backwards had he not blocked it with an expert hand. "Well done, Lior." he said, "That's enough for the----" he was silent when the wooden walls of his martial arts studio were torn down by the townsfolk._

"_You! And your foster demon-teen...Aku's minions are attacking the town!" the town mayor shouted infuriatingly to Daichi. "She is NOT a demon." he said. "Master, how about we teach the minions a lesson." Lior said. "Pack your bags and get out of my town!" the mayor said as the two obliged. They collected the most important things to them and went back to the studio, which was actually the front of Daichi's house._

"_Get them!" the townspeople shouted and pulled them outside. They went to the place where the giant robots were laying waste. "Here they are!" the mayor said as he and the other citizens ran off, leaving the master and student._

"_Do you remember all that I have taught you?" Daichi asked Lior. "Uh...I guess...including the wise sayings." "Good. Now, fighting stance. I have taught you how to fight side by side with a partner as well." "Yes, master." Lios said, arms in front, feet parallel and knees slightly bent._

_But even as they were in a fighting stance, the minions of Aku did not seem to notice them. They mindlessly walked then ignited the village with their laser eyes, killed the people with the shuriken which fired from their waists, laid waste to important monuments by using rockets and gattling guns. To give the spectacle a finale, they fired a huge missile as Daichi and Lior watched, shocked at the destruction. They couldn't do anything now. No life was to be spared._

_BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!_

_The explosion was so forceful, it sent Daichi and Lior flying into a nearby forest. From there they watched the flames leap into the air, flickering firelight sounding like the sickening crushing of bones. The vivid orange color seemed to be a torch in the sunset, as night came._

_This forest became their home...for three years. They had stayed out of trouble well.  
_

"That is our story. I believe you have your own, Jack, said in epics during the winter nights where the fire leaps at the very sound of your name, probably more painful than ours, since you fight for honor. You were lost not just because of evil, but because of time." Daichi said.

"Like you, I have suffered under Aku. A million times perhaps, yet I am still bent on finding my way back. Your story is inspiring, Daichi and Lior. I have not heard one like yours." Jack said, smiling, as he looked at the sky from the depths of the cave and found that it was nightfall.

Daichi took a few branches that were stacked in a pile behind a sharp, tall rock in the cave. Producing two flint rocks from his pockets, he made a fire in a very hollow stone which had a hole for convenience.

"We spent a whole afternoon talking." Daichi chuckled while looking at the starry sky. "Yes, master. I believe it is time for me to fetch water. I will go now." Lior said, bowing to her master. "Wait, Lior. Let me go with you." Daichi said.

"Sir, this is the first time you've come with me to fetch water. How about our visitor?" Lior said, with a doubtful expression. "I will be alright." Jack said. "I want to go with you. Something seems wrong tonight." Daichi said, his eyes staring outside the cave. A gust of wind blew through the forest, chilling the bones of the three. Yes, there is something wrong.

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Here ends chapter 1... Thank you for leaving behind comments and points to ponder on. Until the next chapter, if I should continue.


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